Experiences with Lessons

[UFORocks]

I feel like I've hit a plateau with my playing. I can jam out and hold just about any rhythm and I've broken into lead a little bit, though not much. And when it comes to theory, forget about it.

So I've been thinking about taking lessons, and found a teacher named David Joel (LINK). Anyone ever heard of this guy, or even know him personally? I talked to him a little while today and he at least appears to be a cool dude and a serious teacher. On his "Teaching" page he has some success stories from various students, which is a plus.

Lessons are weekly and $50 an hour, and its an hour drive for me, each way. Luckily he's got a slot open on saturday mornings, but thats still a lot of cabbage to fork out plus gas.

Later,

Steve

[CharvelRocker]

Where are you in PA? Out in Manor (by Lancaster/Millersville) at Manor Music Mansion I take lessons from Trey Alexander, Guitar Player Guitar Hero 2006. Guy is amazing... http://www.treyalexander.net/ He would be perfect for what you're looking to learn I think.

[wakeUPdead]

Its always plateaus man, hell I was practicing about 8 hours a day for the past 3 weeks. And now I'm kinda burnt out, but I wanna jam today might too after I clean up.

But these lessons are probably just gonna shoot you into the theory, which you could learn on your own if you grab a scale book and dig in. I say listen to NEW music. Whatever it may be, punk, metal, jazz, rock, whatever. But check out some other tunes, inspiration will hit ya up!

[petedz]

I've never had any luck with lessons. My best stretches of learning and improvement came from working on something that was way beyond my ability and keeping at it until brute force got me there. (An example of one of those big jumps was learning all of Bark at the Moon to tempo. Trivial for most here, but it completely kicked my ass. Afterwards I was better at a ton of things.)

[Super_shredder]

my guitar teacher was amazing for me, he was less of a teacher and more of a paid-friend who taught me guitar ! , after 3 years he has said that i am better then him so i am going to get lessons from another guy who is going to teaching me some more theory ( i already know the modes and such but i want to venture out inot the japanese and kumoi scales) infact my guitar teacher is going out to san diago for a year so i might have to get him to get a cheap jackson for me ( jacksons in the UK are 2000 pounds.about 4300 dollars for a USA dinky)

[UFORocks]

Where are you in PA? Out in Manor (by Lancaster/Millersville) at Manor Music Mansion I take lessons from Trey Alexander, Guitar Player Guitar Hero 2006. Guy is amazing... http://www.treyalexander.net/ He would be perfect for what you're looking to learn I think.

Im actually in Newark DE, about 45 to 50 minutes south of philly.

I talked to the teacher today and set a lesson up for this weekend, so we'll see how things go. There were a few teachers I was interested in, one being a guy named Ernie Carletti, who interestingly enough was arrested on rape charges back in september, so thats out.

I've been to the local shops and talked to most of the teachers, and for the most part they're hacks, some good players out there, but none that I want to pay $40+ an hour for lessons.

This guy Dave teaches based on the Berkley modern guitar method by William Leavitt. So I gotta pick up his book and a spiral bound of music notation paper. The lesson will be mixed playing and book work.

I'm actually pretty excited about this. The last time I took and kind of music class was in elementary school and I aced it. I wonder how much I've retained after 15 years

jacksons in the UK are 2000 pounds.about 4300 dollars for a USA dinky

Later,

Steve

[CharvelRocker]

Ahh, too bad. Cool Seems like he's been good. Sometimes you can just tell the ones that are good the ones that arent. Good luck!

[Sukisyn]

Ernie Carletti...When you mentioned he was arrested I thought that story was familiar. He was picked up by Iced Earth but I believe he was dropped after his arrest I wonder whatr ever happened with that...

[LastInLine]

I've taken exactly 2 lessons in 25+ years and you know what.......I regret not taking more.

[delt]

Just download some instructionals on the net. With anything from John Petrucci, Jani Liimatainen, Michael Romeo, Rusty Cooley.... you'll have your hands full for a while.

[UFORocks]

Just download some instructionals on the net. With anything from John Petrucci, Jani Liimatainen, Michael Romeo, Rusty Cooley.... you'll have your hands full for a while.

Yeah, I dont have the patience for that honestly. I know it sounds strange to have limited patience and also play guitar. I don't like videos and online lessons because I usually end up with questions, sometimes with obvious answers, but unfortunately you can't ask a video a question.

Sometimes I'd rather someone just show me how to do something than watch 45 minutes of video or read pages of lessons to get the answer I want.

Eh, its probably one reason why I'm an IT manager rather than a professional musician

Later,

Steve

[kmanick]

downloading stuff is great, and you can learn a lot, but there's nothing like sitting across from someone who rips. Every time I get together with some one that's better than me, I pick something up and bring it away with me. learning from the right teacher is far more beneficial than, just looking thru tabs and reading theory books on your own.
Watching someone else play a solo that gives you trouble can give you insight into what they're doing right and what you're doing wrong.

[Robert Burns]

With all the great DVD instuction available, Lessons just cant compare in
my opinion. When you get home, your thinking.."now what did he say"?
With a DVD, you get to rewind, and practice it 100 times over.
I would think your $1000 goes 10 times further owning almost every DVD
out there, over going to an instructor for maybe a year? DVD baby

[delt]

> unfortunately you can't ask a video a question.

No, but you can share it with everyone here and ask us

[shredmonster]

At times players need inspiration and instruction from different sources.
Sometimes there is nothing like having someone who really knows what they are doing standing there in front of you.

There are things you can't get from books or even videos that a good teacher can show you. Dynamics, tone, vibrato stuff comes to mind.